Yeltsin and the Great Divide in Russian Society
Résumé
Boris Yeltsin was reelected President of the Russian Federation onJuly 3, 1996, in a second round of voting. His victory was welcomed with a certain sense of relief in Russia and with a definite feeling of relief in the West, but with no exaltation. The victory, similar to the morale of the populace, was gloomy. Neither joy nor great hope accompanied it, as if the second mandate of Boris Yeltsin was a lesser evil. No one in Russia says "it is the victory of a democrat." Without much conviction, they prefer to rejoice over a "victory for democracy." At least, another battle has been won by universal suffrage and popular sovereignty. More than 70 million people voted, in conditions certainly far from irreproachable, especially in the second round, but this ninth popular consultation in six years institutionalizes the free vote a little deeper as an essential pillar of Russian political life.